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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: PENGUINS v RED WINGS


June 6, 2009


Marc Crawford

Bill Guerin

Kris Letang

Maxime Talbot


DETROIT, MICHIGAN: Game Five

Detroit – 5
Pittsburgh -0


Q. The fact that both teams are great at home, is there any reason why it's such a homer series in your opinion?
SIDNEY CROSBY: No, yeah, I mean, first two we played here. They were close games. Could go either way. Even the games at our rink, too. They were good hockey games. So, you know, this was kind of out of left field. But, you know, I've we've got a game to win at home now.

Q. When the team loses composure in the second period, and some of the penalties of slashing?
SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah, I mean, it's 5-0, that's typical. But I thought in the third we, you know, try to keep things together, and, you know, try to generate some chances. That's frustrating. Obviously, in playoff games you expect to be intense in tight games. You know, they get a string like that, and there's, you know, nobody that's not going to be frustrated by that.
At the same time, we regrouped in the third and we've got a game to win here at home.

Q. Anticipating that the Wings are probably sore about Max slashing Datsyuk on the foot, considering he just came off that injury. What was your reaction?
SIDNEY CROSBY: I didn't see it. I mean, this is the playoffs. And there's lots of stuff going on out there. I'm sure that's not the only slash. It's the playoffs.

Q. It appeared you guys had all the momentum there early on. And then all of a sudden, Cleary scores that goal and you kind of lose it.
SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah, I don't know if we lost it right there. I mean, he got one there. But, you know, they put a string together like we did last game. You know, that's basically what it came down to. You know, they got a couple on the power play, but you know, they put a string together, and they took away a lot of momentum.

Q. Was Datsyuk really that crucial? Did he give you guys a lot of problems tonight?
SIDNEY CROSBY: Well, they all played well. You know, he looked good out there. He made a play in the first goal. But we just made mistakes. You know, it doesn't matter. We made mistakes.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
SIDNEY CROSBY: Sometimes it is. When you don't play well at all, you have nothing to do but improve, and we have to. And the situation's pretty clear for us. We've got to go home and be desperate now, and we've been here before. So it's nothing new. We've got to respond the right way.

Q. Why are you so confident that the team will respond the way you think they will?
SIDNEY CROSBY: Because I think we've been through a lot of things that, you know, we haven't had a big loss like this. Maybe in the playoffs we've been through a lot that we've had to bounce back from. Don't get me wrong, this isn't an easy loss, but, you know what, like I said, a loss is a loss. It's unfortunate that we didn't have a better effort, but reality is we've got to go home and win one. We've got to hopefully get a result from that.

Q. Is there another game in the playoffs that you can remember (Indiscernible).
SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah, I mean, it's 5-0. You look up in the second period, and nobody's going to be happy with that especially in a big game. But like I said earlier, we tried to focus a little more on doing some good things in the third. And we've got to have our best next game?

Q. Do you guys still need your exercise, is it anything special that you can do?
SIDNEY CROSBY: We won in Game 5 in overtime, and we won a regular season game here. I think we're pretty confident we can do a job here. We're going to do it tonight, and get ourselves back with a big win at home and take care of that, hopefully.

Q. What did you say to Marc-Andre when he came off the ice?
SIDNEY CROSBY: Just not to worry about it. A goalie's going to be upset in that situation. That's a competitor in him. But reality is we didn't give him a lot of help, and he's got nothing to be mad about. We need him to bounce back in the next game, and we need everybody at their best, including him.

Q. Is there anything you can take from a game like this?
MAXIME TALBOT: Yeah, you forget about it. That's what you try to do. The guys played really well. And the loss is the loss. We just have to regroup and go back on Tuesday.

Q. What is the challenge to keep your composure in a game like this? How tough is it out there when things get away from you?
MAXIME TALBOT: It's tough. But we should have done a better job of keeping our composure. But whatever, you know. We start 0-0 next game.

Q. You know Marc-Andre as well as anybody. Is this something he can brush off to get ready for Tuesday night?
MAXIME TALBOT: Yes, yes, definitely. He's been through a lot in his career like anybody other player, he's got great character. I'm sure he'll be ready for Tuesday's game.

Q. Do you just have a conversation with that guy or let him go and do his thing?
MAXIME TALBOT: We'll chat. He'll try to forget about it. He can't be too hard on himself. He had some pretty bad breaks out there. So just forget about it.

Q. Was there a moment where you felt it was getting away from you a little bit? You mentioned the discipline. Was there a certain point that changed tonight?
MAXIME TALBOT: In a game like that, you always try to come back and make the right play to put the puck down low and try to come back in the game. But at 5-0, we still wanted to go get the win. That's the plan. You never want to stop working. I don't think we did.
Now the game is over, they won. It's 3-2, and we're going back home.

Q. What effect did they have with Datsyuk back? Can you talk about his impact on the ice?
MAXIME TALBOT: He played a good game. You know, he's an important player for their team. But, you know, it doesn't make them that much better. They're all dangerous. And that's not the way we want to play. We want to play harder. We played a real they played a really solid game tonight.

Q. How much was their better play and you not playing as well?
MAXIME TALBOT: Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I didn't watch the tape. And I won't.

Q. What about the power play, they got the penalty kill?
MAXIME TALBOT: They moved the puck really well. You know, they're moving it, and putting pressure on that so we have to maybe look at what they did and try to come back and regroup for the next game.

Q. You guys killed the penalty in the beginning of the second period, and you got caught on a bad line change when they scored that goal. Is that a turning point in the way Staal's goal was the other night? It seemed it kind of opened the flood gates from there?
MAXIME TALBOT: I don't know. I can't recall every goal. But if you say so, it might have been. I don't know. I think the whole game was not the way we wanted to play. They played good, and we've got to give them credit. But it's going to be a different game Tuesday.

Q. Can you just try to put that second period into words?
MAXIME TALBOT: Well, they played good, we didn't.


Q. Can you talk about how things got away from you in the second period?
BILL GUERIN: I think it's pretty obvious what it was. It was penalties. We got away from it. Their power play was on it tonight. We just kept moving the puck. It wasn't our best game tonight. They were hot. They were really hot. The penalties were definitely an issue for us.

Q. How was it that you played the way you did in the first period and then come out of it down?
BILL GUERIN: Well, it's disappointing. But the puck took a funny bounce off our end, and it kind of went off the wall. So you have to be able to get that out.

Q. Do you think there was a little too much talk about how the Red Wings were supposedly tired and all that stuff?
KRIS LETANG: I don't think they're tired. It's the way we played, we rattled them by putting the puck behind them. It's tough to play, like I said, on the "D" men. And I hate when they're behind me, and I have to get it all the time. I get hit all the time, so that's tough. They managed the puck tonight.

Q. Didn't really help your goalie tonight. Can you talk about Fleury and trying to bounce back?
KRIS LETANG: I mean, he's going to bounce back. He's a great goalie. We have a lot of confidence in him, and we're not scared. We know that he's going to be there, and he's going to be great.

Q. How did things swing so dramatically the other way? You were looking so good in Game 4, and they were looking like they were coming apart?
KRIS LETANG: Like I said. We got rattled after the second goal and got frustrated. We totally got out of our system. We were not playing the same way. And we were taking stupid penalties.

Q. Do you worry about what this does to Fleury? He hasn't been pulled in such a long time. Do you think it's going to shake him up a little bit?
KRIS LETANG: No, I think he's going to bounce back. He's had a little time to think about it. He's going to forget about it, and it will be a new game.

Q. Max says this is maybe easier to forget when you lose 5-0 than a 2-1 overtime game, do you agree?
KRIS LETANG: Yeah, like when you lose in overtime, it's always like you don't know who is going to win. And we knew they were outplaying us. The only thing we had to do in the third was get back to our game and try to set up the Game 6.

Q. Was it more of what they did to throw you off your game, to frustrate you guys a little bit?
KRIS LETANG: I think we did that to ourselves. We got off our game because we had a good start. When we went down 2-0, I think we just got out of our game.

End of FastScripts




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